Google Earth: Final Frontier?

I always get the feeling that with every new product from Google, there is a hugely ambitious, hugely ingenious, not-yet-revealed plan behind it. Google Earth, one such new product, might very well be worth watching just to see how far the search giant can push the technology.

Currently, in Google “mash-ups” fashion, layers of data points can be superimposed over Google Earth, so that, for instance, you can look at your city and see all the pizza shops, or the published property taxes, or political party donations — all public information — mapped to their exact coordinates.